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Emanuel A. M. E. Church Shootings

  • Dylann Roof's chances for a new appellate hearing continue to dwindle. Roof is challenging his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to reconsider recusing itself from his appeal. Roof's attorneys wanted the judges who opted to sit out his case to reinstate themselves to consider his petition for a new hearing. One of the court's judges prosecuted Roof's case as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2017, when Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime.
  • Dylann Roof wants the entire appellate court that recused itself from hearing his case to reconsider that decision. Roof's attorneys have made that request in new documents filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as he challenges his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. All of the judges on the court have recused themselves from the case. One of them, Judge Jay Richardson, was lead prosecutor on Roof's case. Roof's lawyers say the court should still be able to decide whether he should get a new appellate hearing.
  • Attorneys for the federal government have opposed Dylann Roof's request for a new appellate hearing, arguing that the South Carolina man was properly convicted and sentenced for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black congregation. Federal prosecutors argued in court documents filed Thursday that a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals correctly ruled last month that the government had proven its case against Roof, despite his protestations on several points. In 2017, Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime.
  • Dylann Roof has filed the next step in his federal appeal. On Wednesday, Roof's lawyers filed a petition with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to challenge the court's confirmation of his conviction and death sentence for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. Last month, a three-judge panel of the court unanimously upheld Roof's conviction and sentence, rejecting arguments that the young white man should have been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Now, Roof wants the full court to consider his appeal.
  • A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed Dylann Roof's conviction and sentence in the shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. In 2017, Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime. Authorities have said Roof opened fire during the closing prayer of a Bible study at Mother Emanuel, raining down dozens of bullets on those assembled. He was 21 at the time.
  • On June 17, 2015, twelve members of the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina welcomed a young white man to their evening Bible study. He arrived with a pistol, 88 bullets, and hopes of starting a race war. Dylann Roof’s massacre of nine innocents during their closing prayer horrified the nation. Two days later, some relatives of the dead stood at Roof’s hearing and said, “I forgive you.” That grace offered the country a hopeful ending to an awful story. But for the survivors and victims’ families, the journey had just begun.
  • On June 17, 2015, twelve members of the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina welcomed a young white man to their evening Bible study. He arrived with a pistol, 88 bullets, and hopes of starting a race war. Dylann Roof’s massacre of nine innocents during their closing prayer horrified the nation. Two days later, some relatives of the dead stood at Roof’s hearing and said, “I forgive you.” That grace offered the country a hopeful ending to an awful story. But for the survivors and victims’ families, the journey had just begun.
  • His attorneys argue the "delusional belief" of the man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation should have meant he couldn't represent himself at trial. Attorneys for Dylann Roof told an appeals court Tuesday that Roof's theory that he'd be saved by white nationalists — but only if he kept mental health evidence out of his defense — should have shown his trial judge he wasn't competent. Roof is on federal death row for the 2015 slayings at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston. The federal government says he was properly found competent and should stay on death row.
  • Dylann Roof, the man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation in 2015, is making his appellate argument that his conviction and death sentence should be overturned.
  • On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for June 18, 2020, we reflect on the Mother Emanuel AME massacre in Charleston five years later. We also…